Fiona Apple brings her many voices to Mesa Arts Center

by Ed Masley - Sept. 19, 2012 10:57 AMThe Republic | azcentral.com

She was 18 when "Tidal" announced the arrival of an enigmatic force of nature who quickly developed a reputation for exorcising her various demons in concerts that frequently played like emotional high-wire acts.

At 35? Fiona Apple showed no signs of mellowing with age on Tuesday, Sept. 18, in a Mesa Arts Center performance that hit the ground running with "Fast as You Can" in an electrifying reinvention that attacked the accents like a '60s beat group raised on hipster jazz, and featured several highlights from her latest masterpiece, "The Idler Wheel..."

The four musicians in her touring band allowed her to explore the full dynamic range of the material in awe-inspiring whisper-to-a-scream arrangements that incorporated everything from jazz and blues to cabaret, the avant-garde, chamber-pop, country and soul.

And then they closed with Conway Twitty's "Only Make Believe."

Guitarist Blake Mills frequently drew cheers, mid-song, for his guitar heroics, while drummer Amy Wood brought a jazz-like swing to several highlights, often using brushes.

But an Apple concert ultimately comes down to the fact that she remains among the more intriguing, idiosyncratic singers in the history of rock and roll, capable of fierce intensity and an almost childlike vulnerability, often in the course of one song. There were quavering, paper-thin high notes that felt like Snow White sucking helium from one balloon and nitrous oxide from another. There were feral growls and tortured howls that left you wondering if her priest got called away mid-exorcism. Her voice can be playful and quirky (see "Extraordinary Machine"). But Apple is also an undeniably soulful presence on the mike, as she proved repeatedly throughout the set, from "On the Bound" and "Shadowboxer" to that aching, hushed rendition of the Conway Twitty song.

She also threw herself into the music physically, giving into the vibe of the moment, whether seductively swiveling her hips or pounding her fists on the floor. She played her fair share of piano but spent a large part of the set at center stage just singing. That's assuming you can call what Apple does just singing.

She didn't have a lot to say. But when she told the crowd "I have two things to say" before the final song, what followed definitely lived up to her reputation. First she lashed out at her label for pulling promotional support from her new album in response to her placing a song on a soundtrack. Then, she announced that she had found a great use for the padding in her bra.

"You can tape it to the front of your open-toed shoes," she said, proudly showing off her padded footwear.

It's not every artist who could go from that to what she did to "Only Make Believe."